Game apparatus comprising removable mats and method of playing a game therewith



. FOLEY ET AL. 1 3 .484, 106

Dec. 16. 1969 F GAME APPARATUS COMPRISING REMOVABLE MATS AND METH OF PLAYING A GAME THEREWITH 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Sept. 15, 1967 1: F245: .2 I6 64 U/ 14 Of :Q2 m m CE m (1% U-,5 MU A a III w w m M CHARLES D. Mccwzfl/y ,4 rm mwsys Dec. 16. 1969 c. F. FOLEY ETAL 3,484,106 GAME APPARATUS COMPRISING REMOVABLE MATS AND METHOD OF PLAYING A GAME THEREWITH Filed Sept. 15, 1967 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 FILE. 4

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FIE 5 INVENTORS M ZmW AQQWM Arrazmsys United States Patent GAME APPARATUS COMPRISING REMOVABLE MATS AND METHOD OF PLAYING A GAME THEREWITH Charles F. Foley, Minneapolis, and Charles D. McCarthy,

Deephaven, Minn., assignors to Milton Bradley Company, Springfield, Mass., a corporation of Massachusetts Filed Sept. 15, 1967, Ser. No. 667,962 Int. Cl. A63b 67/00; A63f 9/00 US. Cl. 273-1 2 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A game apparatus comprising a plurality of playing mats each of which is used for supporting limbs of people playing the game, and means to indicate which mats should be removed from the playing field thereby forcing movement of limbs of the players until only one player remains on the mats in the playing field and becomes the winner. The mats have complemental peripheral shapes, half of the mats having four convex sides and half of the mats having four concave sides. The game apparatus permits playing as teams or individually and is played by people using a floor as a playing field.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Field of the invention The present invention relates to game apparatus suitable for playing by persons either individually or in teams and in which the players must move their limbs in accordance with chance selected directions.

Description of the prior art In the field of party games for adults, an emphasis is presently put on games which can be placed on the floor and played in the stocking feet. The present game utilizes playing pieces or mats that are placed on the floor to permit human appendages, namely the feet and hands to be put onto the playing pieces, and chance selection devices are provided so that upon proper signal one of the players must remove one of his limbs or appendages from one of his playing pieces and move it to another. This goes on until a player loses his balance, and touches the floor or gets into some other position wherein he cannot move in accordance with the instructions given by the selection devices. Then, upon gradual elimination, the last player left in place is the winner, or in teams, when one player touches the playing field the game is lost.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to game apparatus comprising a plurality of playing pieces having indicia and which are of size to receive and support limbs of a human being. The playing pieces are removed from the playing area in accordance with chance selection and the limb from the playing piece is moved to another playing piece until at least one player loses his balance and touches the playing field with his body.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIGURE 1 is a plan view of a typical set up of a game of the present invention using teams of players;

FIGURE 2 is a top plan view of the device of FIG- URE 1 showing a first move in the sequence of play;

FIGURE 3 is a top plan view of the device of FIG- URE 1 showing subsequent moves in the sequence of p y;

FIGURE 4 is a top plan view of a set up of the game apparatus of the present invention when played among a plurality of individuals acting on their own; and

3,484,106 Patented Dec. 16, 1969 FIGURE 5 is a plan view of the device of FIGURE 4 showing subsequent moves in the plan of play of individuals.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT First, referring to FIGURES 1-3, there is shown a typical game set up for pair of players. The players are aligned in rows indicated at and 11 as shown (there are three players in each row but there can be up to six in each team) and they are standing on playing pieces or mats 12, which are large playing pieces for the right foot and playing pieces or mats 13, which are smaller playing pieces for the left foot. To start, each of the players have both of their feet 14 on the mats. The players stand facing each other with the playing pieces resting on a playing field or surface such as a floor, and each of them is given a card 15 selected by a person appointed as captain for each team. The cards have indicia which indicates their playing value. To play, two of the players, one from each side. selected by the captain of each team, will turn over their cards 15. As shown, the cards have numerals (see FIGURE 2) 16 thereon which indicate the value of the cards. Upon selection of the player from each of the teams in the rows 10 and 11 and turning over of the respective cards, the lower card, for example the card having the numeral 2 on it in FIGURE 2, is the loser (the feet of the moving person are shaded in the drawing) and the person holding this card must get rid of one of the playing pieces or mats on which he is standing. The playing piece shown in dotted lines at 20 is thus removed by the losing player 21 and the losing player must move his right foot 22 (on the larger mat) onto another mat of one of the players in his row or team 10 (player 21 will be turned around now). The play then progresses, as shown in FIGURE 3. For example where the player 24 at one end of row 10 and the player 25 in the middle of row 11 are designated as the contestants. The player 25 has a card with the words Oh! No! shown at 26 thereon, and this is lower than any numeral so the card 27 with the numeral 2 is the winner and the player 25 must move the larger of his mats, for example mat 32 and move his right foot 33 over to his neighbors mat. Assuming that the player 25 lost again, and had to remove the mat from his left foot 31, he would have to put his left foot over onto a mat of his other neighbor and would start doing the splits. If a losing player has both feet on mats of equal size, the mat under his right foot is removed. If two or more feet are on a mat which must be removed, all feet on the removed mat are moved. As play progresses, any number of players may have one foot on the same mat at the same time but one player may not have both feet on the same mat. A foot is considered on the mat if any part of it is on the mat, but any part of a foot off the mat must be in the air and not touch the floor. Team players can hold team mates to help them maintain balance. Of course, by the time play has progressed very far, the positions become impossible to maintain and a player will contact the playing field (floor) with a part of the body. When this happens that team loses and the other wins.

Each time the mat is removed from either team or row, the cards or chance selection units 15 are re-done and passed out again and a new player is desgnated. Another way of winning is if one of the teams or rows comes down to one mat and all of the people are on it, they still lose.

In FIGURES 4 and 5, a variation of the game is shown wherein individuals play by themselves. In this instance a plurality of mats 35 which are the same as previous mats, but which contain indicia in numeral sequence indicated :at 36 thereon are used. Each of the players is given four mats and stands on the mats with his feet on two of the mats and hands on the other two. For example the hands are indicated at 37, and the feet indicated at 38. Then, a plurality of cards 39 (chance selection device) each having indicia 40 corresponding to the indicia on the mats used, are mixed up and one of the cards drawn. This chance selection is usually done by a referee who is not a player, but can be done by anyone. The player having a limb on the mat with indica corresponding to the card drawn must remove this mat from the field and move that limb to another mat (any bodys). For example, where the indicia is 6 as shown in FIGURE 4, the mat indicated at 42 has to be removed and the player will move his hand 37 over to another players mat. Then, as play progresses as shown in FIGURE 5, if a card 40 is drawn and as shown at 43 has the numeral 3 on it, a player Who has a limb on that particular mat has to move his limb as Well. This mat is shown at 44 and the player must move his foot 45 over to another players mat. Then, as play progresses, it can be seen that eventually (and not very long), the playing will be such that one; player can no longer maintain his balance and will fall out. Once the players hand, foot or body touches the playing surface or the floor, he is eliminated and the last player standing wins the game.

Here again, the individual mats of size to support human limbs are utilized with indicia indicating their rank and chance selection devices are used to indicate What limb should be removed from what mat. The object of the game is not to touch the playing field on which the mats are placed.

Another feature of the playing mats in their unique shape. As shown in FIGURE 6, the mats can be cut out from a large piece of cardboard shown fragmentarily and are made so that there is no waste of the cardboard. The large mats 12 have convex edges 47 and the small mats 13 have concave edges 48 which mate with the convex edges 47 of the large mats so that they nest together and this means that when they are cut there is no Waste because the large and small mats mate together on the large piece of cardboard. Further, the usage in this manner gives mats that are distinguishable in size to give an indication of the positioning of the mats and also to give a dilference in size so that more limbs can be placed on the large mats than on the small mats. This adds to the competitiveness of the game,

The chance selection device to determine moves could be dice (in teams, the high roll winner or individually, the number thrown tells Which mat is removed) or a spinner (instructions on the spinner dial) or other means for indicating which mat is removed.

The mats are' large enough to support human limbs, but are small enough so they can be spaced apart and still permit the limbs of a person to contact them. For example, the convex (large) mats are about fourteen inches across at their widest point and the concave mats are about twelve inches on a side (ten inches across at narrow point).

What is claimed is:

1. A game apparatus for a plurality of players comprising a plurality of individual mats adapted to be placed upon a playing field, said mats being of size to receive and support at least one limb of a human being, chance selection means to sequentially indicate removal of a mat from the playing field and thereby cause movement of a limb from the removed mat to another mat on the playing field until the player touches the playing field, said mats being made into first and second peripheral shapes, said first shape having four edges, each of them being convex, and said second shape having four edges each of them being concave, said concave edges mating with said convex edges.

2. A method of amusement comprising placing individual mats, of a size to receive the hands or feet of a person, on a playing surface; placing at least two limbs from each of a plurality of persons on separate mats; operating change selection means to select mats to be removed from the playing surface; sequentially removing the selected mats; and designating as a loser any person who touches the playing surface subsequent to the removal of at least one of the selected mats.

US. Cl. X.R. 

